Various information technology devices such as computers and car navigation equipments use disks (e.g. CD, DVD, and Blue Ray Disk) as recording media, which can store information of a considerable amount. The disk is loaded in a disk device to write information onto or read information from the disk. In general, disk devices, which are incorporated in the information technology devices, include two types: a tray type can hold the disk on a tray that can be protruded from or retracted into the equipment, and a slot-in type allows inserting or ejecting the disk directly through a slot. The slot-in type disk device includes a disk feeding mechanism having a motor-driven loading slider. Insertion of the disk into a slot of a front bezel causes a slight movement of the disk feeding mechanism, which actuates a motor. The actuated motor causes the loading slider to move in a direction to feed the disk into the slot. Thus, the disk is loaded in the disk device through the disk feeding mechanism.
The slot-in type disk devices can be smaller and lighter because it does not require the tray. Therefore, the slot-in type is widely used in handheld devices like notebook computers. In order to unload the disk from the slot-in type disk device, an instruction to eject the disk is entered, for example, by pushing a button. In response to this instruction, the motor starts running reversely to unload the disk automatically.
However, if the power shuts down accidentally because of power outage or the like, or if something goes wrong with the disk device, the disk device will not be able to eject the disk automatically, so the disk will be left unloaded. To deal with such an emergency, the disk device is equipped with a forcible disk ejection mechanism.
Disk devices as disclosed in JP-A 2009-03771, JP-A 2008-198264, and US 2007/0192781A1 (corresponding to JP-A 2007-220276), are provided with a disk transport mechanism with a loading slider, a motor for driving the loading slider, and a transmission gear mechanism having a plurality of gears to transmit the rotation of the motor to the loading slider. The prior art disk devices further include a forcible disk ejection mechanism, which is constituted of a rotary disc that holds one of the gears of the transmission gear mechanism such that the rotary disc can cause the one gear to rotate to a position disengaged from other gears. In these prior art disk devices, the loading slider moves forward, i.e. toward the front of the disk device, to feed the disk into a case chassis, and the loading slider moves rearward to feed the disk out of the case chassis. In an emergency that the disk cannot be unloaded automatically, an operation pin is put into a front hole of the case chassis, which causes the rotary disc and hence the gear held by the rotary disc to rotate to a position disengaged from other gears. When the operation pin is pushed further into the hole while the gear is in the disengaged position, the operation pin will push the loading slider rearward, thereby unloading the disk from the case chassis.
In the above mentioned prior arts, the disk is forced out to an ejected position by pushing the operation pin into the deepest position inside the hole. Accordingly, the operator nipping the operation pin by hand has to keep pushing the operation pin into the hole till the disk starts being fed out. In that case, the disk forced out to the ejected position can crash against the operator's finger to cause injury. Therefore, the prior art disk devices are not safe enough for the operator to perform the forcible disk ejection.